BiomassWeb in Rural 21: Bioeconomy – a future for farmers in the South?

Economic growth coupled with environmental sustainability – that is the promise of the biobased economy. ZEF director Joachim von Braun outlines the potential and risks of a bio-based economy for developing countries in the article Bioeconomy and sustainable development-dimensions.

The rising demand for biomass is transforming agriculture from a food to a complex biomass-supplying and -processing sector, which the countries of the South could benefit from. Detlef Virchow, Tina Beuchelt, Manfred Denich, Tim K. Loos, Marlene Hoppe and Arnim Kuhn explore a biomass-based value web approach to better capture the complexities of the biomass producing and processing sectors in their article The value web approach – so that the South can also benefit from the bioeconomy.

Making better and more diversified use of plants in order to benefit from existing resources is one of the targets that the bioeconomy has set itself. Sajid Latif and Joachim Müller from the University of Hohenheim show in their article Cassava – how to explore the “all-sufficient” that first of all a lot of ground-breaking research is needed .

Is Africa “ready” for an integrated bioeconomy approach? asks post-harvest specialist Adebayo Abass. With its abundance of natural resources, Africa appears to be predestined for a type of economy that centres on the use of bio-based resources. However, before a comprehensive approach can be applied, a large number of framework conditions and policies will have to change, Adebayo Abass maintains.

And our partners from C.S.P. – Consulting and Service for plant-based raw materials GmbH, based in Dresden, Germany, aim to bring together supply and demand for bio-based resources. The potential is enormous, they believe, but so are the hurdles they have to face. Read more in their article More than just mediators.